Hyderabad: Official ask chemists to note details of buyers

Hyderabad: The Municipal Administration & Urban Development Department (MA&UD) Principal Secretary, Arvind Kumar directed healthcare officials and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) authorities to track down people who complain of a cough and fever when visiting medical stores and government hospitals.

According to the notice issued by the MA&UD, it has been observed by the department officials that due to some hesitation and stigma of having coronavirus, people suffering from fever, cough and etc., people are approaching medical stores asking for fever and cough medicines without a doctor’s receipt.

Arvind Kumar in a notice instructed the healthcare officials and COVID-19 surveillance team of the GHMC to regularly keep track of these people who experience fever and other symptoms of the virus.

“We should be able to contact these patients and test for coronavirus depending upon the symptoms they show,” stated Kumar.

The higher official asked the authorities to convene a meeting with all medical stores including their medical associations, pharmacist associations and instructed them to ask for buyers’ contact details, address and reasons for buying medicine.

The pharmacists will then pass on this list of these buyers to the concerned officials to determine whether those who showed symptoms should be tested or not. “This initiative will go a long way in containment efforts  pro-actively,” the official added in the notice.